Southampton Rebellion: A Conversation with Dr Vanessa Holden

In 1831, in Southampton County, VA, Nat Turner led a rebellion of enslaved people that lead to the deaths of nearly sixty white men, women, and children. In the rebellion's wake, African Americans, free and enslaved, suffered retaliatory violence, public execution, and repressive legislation. While Turner's name remains instantly recognizable to many, the community that produced him is often obscured in retellings of the Southampton Rebellion.

Dr. Holden will speak about how she found the stories of Black women and their experience of the Southampton Rebellion. She will also talk about how Black women survived in the aftermath America's most famous slave rebellion.